ACLU calls on Eric Holder to clarify med marijuana policy

The ACLU wants some clarification on what’s going on with the fed’s medical marijuana policy.

After years of assuming the Department of Justice wouldn’t raid people who follow state laws related to medical marijuana, U.S. Attorneys across the country are sending threatening letters to states (including little Rhody) warning that their dispensaries are illegal and vulnerable to raids and criminal prosecution.

So, the ACLU wants some answers. In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, it asked for some clarification.

The U.S. Attorney letters send two distinct and equally problematic messages, one about the role of the federal government vis-à-vis the sovereign states, and the other about the substance of federal drug policy. The federalism concern is that the timing of the U.S. Attorneys’ letters creates the appearance that the Department of Justice is using its law enforcement and prosecutorial functions to undermine the outcome of lengthy and public legislative processes by various sovereign states… If the federal government wishes to discourage the implementation of legitimately enacted
medical marijuana laws, it should do so through substantive debate, not the use of prosecutorial threats.